Some Things I’ve Learned on the Way

I have long thought that prepositions are the most annoying feature of English for students of that language. Why is it “in the night city of time”? Why am I “in the house” but “at home”? Why is “of example” wrong, but “by way of example” is correct?

One of the workhorse parts of speech in English and in most European languages is the relative pronoun. These include that, when, which, who/whom/whose, where and a few other less frequently used ones. Usually they …